Peoria Area Real Estate Topics

Have you heard of Peoria’s Eastern Bypass?  It has been talked about since before our current Rt 6 was built.  It is a bypass that continues Rt 6 east, crossing the river, passing by/through Springbay, Metamora/Germantown Hills, Washington, East Peoria and Morton back to 74.  The picture shows some suggested corridors that Illinois Department of Transportation is looking into.

Rt 6 possible corridors to Rt 74

I realize that it is not “GREEN” to build a new road. Roads have big environmental impacts on their surroundings. Trees cut, hills leveled and farmland lost and being replaced with concrete. Then “put trees in a Tree Museum” and then charge people to look at them. So my enthusiasm for the bypass is “curbed” a bit by what the new road would do to our land scape.

On the other side, one of the biggest benefits to the NE corner of the Greater Peoria Area would be a new bridge that would cross the river. Although vast improvements to the bridge have been made, congestion on the McCluggage bridge can be terrible. Traffic will continue to get worse as the NE portion of our area grows. A Northern bridge is needed. For those who live in the Germantown Hills area and work in Northern Peoria, at least 20 minutes will be shaved from their commute (Score 1 for Green.) The road would be an essential route if there was ever an issue where Peoria needed to be evacuated. It will provide jobs for the area along with growth of the cities to the north.

Depending on how you draw lines, The Greater Peoria Area is the second largest metropolitan area in Illinois (Reaching towards a half million people.) A successful city is a city that grows. The landscape will change and we can’t change that. Building roads has become more environmentally sensitive. A matter of fact, environment is part of the focus of the current studies that IDOT is doing right now.

I guess in writing this,  I would like to see the bypass built. While IDOT should work towards an eco-friendly road. I think that it will help our area in growth, traffic flow and would reduce traffic that is now heavy on some of our back roads.

Thanks
Tim Johnson, REALTOR
Homeward Group, RE/MAX Unlimited
www.TimJohnsonRealtor.com

Always love to hear your thoughts.

More Info at www.EastenBypass.com

Tags: Bypass, Peoria, Rt6

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 16th, 2009 at 11:04 am and is filed under Peoria Area News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.